For Part 3, I am pleased to welcome four authors who each have something to say about SPEAK: Lauren Baratz-Logsted, Becca Fitzpatrick, Jayne Pupek and AS King. A round of applause!!

Lauren Baratz-Logsted speaks up about SPEAK:

SPEAK was not the first book by Laurie Halse Anderson that I read - that honor would go to THANK YOU, SARAH: THE WOMAN WHO SAVED THANKSGIVING, which I read to my then six-year-old daughter - but it certainly was an important book and it made a huge impact on me. Like far too many people, I've known far too many girls and women in my life who have been the victims of acts of sexual aggression. SPEAK spoke not just for its own narrator, but for generations of girls and women. Whether with this book or THANK YOU, SARAH or with the forthcoming WINTERGIRLS, Laurie Halse Anderson is the gold standard that the rest of us YA writers can only hope to be measured against.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the author of several novels for adults and teens including SECRETS OF MY SUBURBAN LIFE and the forthcoming CRAZY BEAUTIFUL (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt September 2009). Visit her website at www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com

**************************************

Becca Fitzpatrick speaks up about SPEAK:

I was twenty five when I first read SPEAK. Not exactly a young adult, but intimidation and demoralization feel the same at sixteen, twenty six or even one hundred and six! One of SPEAK's strongest moments happens in the classroom when Mr. Neck opens a debate on immigration. The moment the debate falls out of his control, he squashes it. “I decide who talks in here,” he says.

Those words made me feel like someone had stuffed broken glass down my throat. Six little words, and I immediately remembered all the times others have tried to silence me. In my early twenties, I took a train from Vermont to Philadelphia. The train arrived in Philadelphia hours delayed, and by the time I boarded the smaller commuter train taking me out of the city, it was late at night. The train carried only a handful of passengers. I found myself sitting beside a man who verbally attacked me. I was petrified and alone—with the eyes of the entire train car on me. From some silent place deep inside me, I wished he would go away. I wished I would disappear. The man's threats intensified, and the passengers shifted their eyes, pretending not to see what was happening.

Then a woman stood up. She told the man if he didn't stop threatening me, she would see to it that the train was stopped and the police called. Never before in my life, have I been so grateful someone had the courage to say the words I couldn't bring myself to say.

In SPEAK, after Mr. Neck closes the debate, a boy named David Petrakis stands up. Everyone watches him, wondering what he will do. I don't have to imagine how alone, afraid, and yet determined David feels, because I've been there. Mr. Neck orders David to take his seat, but David tells his teacher he's protesting the tone of the lesson. Powerful words to a man twice his age, twice his size—a man who controls the grade that will be immortalized on David's report card. While David could easily rationalize away his convictions, he doesn't. Then he sets the perfect example of what it means to speak up, and ironically, he does it without saying a single word.

"David stares at Mr. Neck, looks at the flag for a minute, then picks up his books and walks out of the room. He says a million things without saying a word. I make a note to study David Petrakis. I have never heard a more eloquent silence."

Laurie Halse Anderson's debut novel, SPEAK, is one of the most compelling young adult novels that I've read. SPEAK tells the story of a young girl who becomes an outcast after she calls the police to bust a summer party where she was raped, an event she endures in secret. As someone who has spent more than a decade working in mental health, I can attest to the authenticity with which Anderson describes Melinda's fear and shame; she literally loses her own voice as a result of her trauma. This is a wonderful book to share with any teenager, but especially meaningful for survivors of sexual assault and for any teenager who is being ostracized for doing the right thing. A writer myself, I admire how Anderson uses wit to keep a very difficult subject from becoming overly dark and depressing. This is a moving and engaging read.

I was thirty-eight when I first read SPEAK. From the minute I started, the book had me hooked and I read it in one sitting. I suppose part of the reason I was hooked was to see Melinda say or do something about what had happened to her. I remember hearing the statistics back when I was in high school. One out of four women and girls is raped or sexually assaulted. I remember mentally lining up the girls in my gym class. xxxX xxxX xxxX xxxX xxxX. That’s a lot of girls walking around with a secret burning through their souls—a secret they never asked for or deserved. A secret with its own secrets.

One scene that really sticks out from SPEAK for me is the scene in the art room where IT arrives and starts talking to her. When he says, “Hello? Anyone home? Are you deaf?” it’s just such a moment of raw emotion as a reader. I want to reach into the book and pull him out and somehow show him that he’s done this to a person—to more than one person. I want to show him that he has ruined people.

Melinda asks, “Why am I so afraid?” and I am there with her, equally afraid and quiet.

Two chapters later, Melinda is home sick, watching daytime TV, in the chapter entitled Oprah, Sally Jesse, Jerry and Me. Halfway through that page, there is a single question. “Was I raped?”

Oprah and Sally Jesse answer the question for us. They tell Melinda that this was not her fault. They tell her that she needs to get these feelings and these thoughts of guilt and self-blame out. This had to be one of the best writing vehicles I’ve read in a long time. Because in real life, we don’t usually talk about uncomfortable things unless it’s sensationalized to the point of TV talk shows, and, in most cases, victims like Melinda are silent. xxxX xxxX xxxX xxxX xxxX xxxX. There are so many.

What Laurie Halse Anderson did when she wrote and published SPEAK, is a favor to all of us—victims or not. She allowed us to talk about something that’s systematically ignored. She allowed us to inspect this secret our society keeps hidden, and by doing so, she freed a great many women and girls from a quiet hell, no matter how normal they acted in public. For so many women, SPEAK is a ticket.

16 comments:

That was a really thoughtful set of posts. Interesting to get the views of four different people who all apply different experiences to the same book. You rock, Lenore and Steph, for taking the time to organise this.

In the initial discussion some felt I was critical. I said what I felt, and while I might have said it differently, I said it the only way I could. I had no way of knowing about the second installment which did a much better job of articulating why I felt so strongly.

I didn't want every reader to see it the same. My fear and frustration was the absence of the very points the authors addressed.

Someone says we all bring something different to a read. I spoke as a survivor. I am the girl, the friend, mentor who has listened to the Melinda's.

If I came off raw that is because this is how it sounds even many years later.

Thank you so much for having me, Lenore & Steph. I was thrilled to hear that the 10th anniversary of this fine book was going to get some recognition and honored to be a small part of it. I think one of the most important things for me about SPEAK is that Melinda is dealing with the aftermath of her experience in a way that many many people do, which means, in essence, that she is simply doing the best that she can. (Of course, there is never one right way to do a thing--especially something as difficult as recovery from sexual assault.) I believe that is *exactly* why so many readers could relate to Melinda's struggle. And *exactly* why this book became required reading in so many classrooms--because it speaks subtly about those who aren't confronting something difficult without being pushy, preachy, or judgmental--which I believe are the three main obstacles of recovery in the first place.